1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mower including a vehicle body, a mower unit connected to the vehicle body, a grass catcher for collecting grass clippings transmitted from the mower unit, and a grass catcher support unit for supporting the grass catcher in a rear position of the vehicle body. The grass catcher has an inlet opening formed at a front end thereof, and an outlet opening with an openable lid at a rear end.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional mower with a grass catcher for collecting grass such as lawn cut by a mower unit, the grass catcher is supported by a pair of upper and lower links acting as a grass catcher support unit. Typically, the grass catcher is placed in a grass collecting posture with an inlet opening opposed to the vehicle body. From this position the grass catcher is raised by pushing up the links with a hydraulic cylinder. Subsequently, the grass catcher is rotated about a transverse axis disposed at an upper end thereof, to direct the inlet opening downward for allowing the grass clippings to fall out of the grass catcher (see Japanese Patent Laying-Open Publication H-11-89385, for example).
The conventional grass catcher support unit noted above is useful in that grass clippings may be discharged from the grass catcher raised high. However, the operation for discharging grass clippings tends to be difficult to perform smoothly since the inlet opening must then be directed downward to discharge the grass clippings therethrough.
That is, the grass catcher receives grass clippings from the mower unit as entrained by air flows through a blast duct. The blast duct has a limited diameter since it is necessary to maintain a sufficient air speed through the duct and to pass the duct through a narrow space under the vehicle body. The inlet opening tends to be formed with a small diameter approximately corresponding to the duct diameter, which is small for the size of the grass catcher. As a result, grass clippings are discharged through the small inlet opening in a rather inefficient way.
Where the above grass catcher support unit is employed, grass clippings are discharged in a position relatively close to the vehicle body though from an elevated level. This causes an inconvenience that grass clippings discharged from the grass catcher tend to fall on the vehicle body.
The object of this invention is to provide a mower with a grass catcher and a grass catcher support unit, in which grass clippings may be discharged through an outlet opening formed separately from an inlet opening of the grass catcher, from an elevated level, and away from a vehicle body.
The above object is fulfilled, according to this invention, by a mower comprising a grass catcher connected to the rear end of a vehicle body to be supported in a suspended state by a grass catcher support unit. The support unit includes mounting posts attached to the rear end of the vehicle body and extending upward, and a support link mechanism for interconnecting upper regions of the mounting posts and lower rearward regions of the grass catcher, and for switching the grass catcher between a grass clippings collecting posture with an inlet opening thereof directed forwardly of the vehicle body, and a raised dumping posture with an outlet opening directed downward. The support link mechanism performs a switching process for switching the grass catcher from the glass clippings collecting posture to the raised dumping posture. The switching process includes a translating process for translating the grass catcher obliquely rearward and upward while maintaining the grass catcher substantially parallel to the grass clippings collecting posture, and a rotating process for rotating the grass catcher until the outlet opening is directed downward.
With the above construction, when the grass catcher is switched from the grass clippings collecting posture to the raised dumping posture, the grass catcher moves obliquely rearward and upward in an initial stage of the switching. Compared with a case where the grass catcher moves only upward in the initial stage, the grass catcher is separated smoothly from a duct extending from the vehicle body. The grass catcher raised is rotated about a position adjacent the rearward outlet opening to a posture with the front inlet opening directed upward. Thus, in the raised dumping posture of the grass catcher, the outlet opening is directed downward in a rearward position away from the vehicle body. Consequently, grass clippings may be discharged smoothly by using the outlet opening which is less restricted in size than the inlet opening. A position where the grass clippings are dumped may easily be set away from the vehicle body.
The above features of this invention provide various advantages as follows. When the grass catcher is switched from the grass clippings collecting posture to the raised dumping posture, the grass catcher moves obliquely rearward and upward in the initial stage of the switching. Consequently, the grass catcher is separated smoothly from the blast duct even where the duct has a rear end thereof inserted slightly into the grass catcher to avoid leakage of grass clippings. Since the grass catcher is raised, and is rotated about a position adjacent the rearward outlet opening to a posture with the front inlet opening directed upward, the outlet opening directed downward in the raised dumping posture of the grass catcher lies at a considerable height from the ground and away from the vehicle body. As a result, grass clippings may be discharged smoothly by using the outlet opening which is less restricted in size may be formed larger than the inlet opening. The grass clippings may be dumped easily onto an elevated position spaced from the vehicle body, such as a load-carrying bed of a truck or other platform.
Further, since a completely free space is provided between the grass catcher and the ground, a container or a truck may be brought very close to the rear end of the vehicle body for receiving grass clippings discharged from grass catcher.
In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the support link mechanism includes a quadric crank mechanism having fixed links disposed in the upper regions of the mounting posts, and intermediary links disposed in the lower rearward regions of the grass catcher and extending substantially parallel to the fixed links, and a rotating mechanism for rotating the grass catcher about a transverse axis relative to the intermediary links. By using the quadric crank mechanism with the fixed links and intermediary links set to the above-noted positions, and the rotating mechanism for rotating the grass catcher about a transverse axis, the grass catcher is raised while moving the inlet opening away from the blast duct, and is rotated about the position adjacent the outlet opening to the posture with the inlet opening directed upward and away from the vehicle body. The exit opening is positioned away from the vehicle body side and is directed downward.
Thus, the quadric crank mechanism and rotating mechanism constitute a simple construction for turning the outlet opening downward in a position away from the vehicle body.
That is, this preferred embodiment uses the quadric crank mechanism having fixed links disposed in the upper rear region of the vehicle body, and intermediary links disposed adjacent the outlet opening. This mechanism acts both to raise the grass catcher and to move the inlet opening away from the blast duct. In addition, the intermediary links of this mechanism may be utilized as a position providing the transverse axis of the rotating mechanism. This provides an advantage of simplifying the construction of the support mechanism having the function to change the posture of the grass catcher.
In a further preferred embodiment of this invention, the quadric crank mechanism includes top links and lower links interconnecting the fixed links and the intermediary links, and extending with an angle of inclination approximately from 30 to 50 degrees in the grass clippings collecting posture of the grass catcher. The length of the links are effectively used to secure a raising and lowering stroke.
A lid opening mechanism may be provided for converting a rotation of the grass catcher to the dumping posture, into a movement for opening the openable lid. Then, the lid of the grass catcher in the dumping posture may be opened automatically by using the drive of the rotating mechanism which rotates the grass catcher about the transverse axis.
Other features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description of the embodiment to be taken with reference to the drawings.